In metal, it’s always about what bands are heavier. Well how about a band that’s actually comprised of heavy metal, namely the robot band Compressorhead? We at TGD have been fascinated by the concept of a robot band that’s programmed to play metal classics, and they just played in New York as part of a General Electric celebration of “Brilliant Machines.”
This concert was called “Brilliant Machines Rock,” and as Blabbermouth.net tells us, the band performed songs from Led Zeppelin, The Ramones, and Heart in Lincoln Center. Having seen the band’s rendition of Motorhead’s Ace of Spaces, I can attest they are quite good for robots, although nothing can ever replace the human touch of actual humans playing music.
The robot members of Compressorhead are named Fingers (lead / rhythm guitar), Bones (bass), and Stickboy (drums). These robots were put together from scrap metal, and they move through “electro pneumatics,” and Blabbermouth tells us.
As an executive for GE told Blabbermouth, “GE is reinventing what power can do through hardware fused with intelligent software, and the output will rock the world. A live band of robots shows how metal and data can come together to create entirely new possibilities, powering everyday things such as music in innovative ways.”
While I’m sure some musicians are worried that robot bands could eventually replace humans, we at TGD are actually dubious this could ever happen. The drum machine never replaced real percussionists, and without the heart, soul and imagination of a real person behind it, all the technology in the world is pretty useless. Compressorhead is a pretty cool innovation, but let’s see these, ah, guys write a classic on par with “Highway to Hell,” then we can worry about the machines taking over.
